The First Hope
by The Jar Head
Summary: You know the story right? Jenova? This is my part of that story, a part no one will ever know of. It’s about how I figured everything out, seven or eight years before everyone else, and about how I tried to stop it all from happening, all on my own.
1. Prologue

**The First Hope – Prologue**

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There aren't many people who think too deeply into their existence on planet Earth. Many choose just to get on with things, get on with their lives, make sure they are as happy as possible, and try not to have regrets when the time comes for their bodies to embrace deaths sweet release. Sometimes life is troublesome enough without having to contemplate, just what exactly are we supposed to be doing in the grand scheme of things?**

"_She descends. The time is near, we must act with urgency."_

**Who are we? What are we?**

"_Professor Hojo?", "Yes Professor Gast?", "We need to talk."_

**What do we need? What are we supposed to do?**

"_So you're Zack? Ha, alright then. So kid, why join SOLDIER?"_

**When will the pain end? When will it begin?**

"_Will you be my hero? My knight in shining armor?"_

**Some of us would choose to proceed through life and existence, wondering such questions. A select few, they have to do it. A harsh reality, perhaps even a burden. Why call it a gift or a blessing if that is what you're supposed to do in life?**

"_The life stream of the planet? Don't be ridiculous. We will call it Mako, and it will 'Mako' us millions.", "Yes, we can build reactors to harness this energy, use it as a fuel.", "And especially, what the people don't know, won't hurt them."_

**We all create stories as we travel through life; some of those are referred to as legends. Some are humble, casual, and simple, for lack of a better word. Others would be full of pain and hurt, tragedies.**

"_What about Cloud? That's a nice name, don't you think?"_

**The planet itself knows when it's in danger, and more so, when it is going to and, has to die. Even though this was decided with the dawn of time and space itself, everything with a birth must have a death; the tale of Earth's death had been some several hundred years in the making.**

"_Puppet..."_

**How you may ask? Why would I tell you now, and ruin this story?**

"_Hojo, perhaps this would be a good time to inform me about 'Project S', instead of assuming that I would never find out?", "Heh heh heh... Well."_

**An epic adventure, the journey of a thousand miles, the greatest story ever told, loves first kiss, they all happen and begin because of one very simple, possibly insignificant detail. This snowballs into something of legendary proportions.**

"_Loveless? I hate that thing."_

**The story that my life falls into is part of one of those epics. It started off with what was meant to be one of those insignificant events, turned out it was pretty big. Then I come along and make that snowball a whole lot bigger.**

"_Where're the toilets in this place Angeal?"_

**The story of the biggest disaster to ever befall the good planet Earth.**

"_I'll be waiting."_

**Jenova.**

"_And I don't care how long."_

**This is my part of that story, an untold part, a part no one will ever know of. It's about how I figured everything out, seven or eight years before everyone else, and about how I tried to stop it all from happening, all on my own.**

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****(A/N: Well, that was interesting. I suppose a little bit of explaining is in order. Yes, I left this prologue very open ended for a reason. I am keeping my options open here because I'm not too sure how this piece of fiction will start. ^^;**

**... However, I know exactly how it ends, so please trust me; the last chapter, if I ever get round to making it, will be damn good.**

**Another reason for the vague approach to an introduction is to keep the readers guessing for a long time, in fact, I will hand the story rights over to the first person to figure out who the narrator is souly using knowledge derived from this passage.**

**The reason for this confidence is because the narrator is an OC, unfortunately, and yes, there may be a couple more OC's introduced too. However, the limit I will go in this piece will be, maybe 4. And also I'll make some apologies to those who find this kind of introduction annoying as hell, because it helps you understand nothing. ^^; Please bare with me; I know what I'm doing... Sorta. XD**

**And on a final note this piece will have a few tweaks to the actual Final Fantasy VII plot, nothing completely outrageous such as like, Sephiroth never existed etc. This is because my knowledge of all things Final Fantasy VII isn't encyclopaedic, (and I haven't played Crisis Core at all either) so dates and ages and certain aspects of the plot will be arranged to the best of my ability. Again, an apology if this brings forth annoyance.**

**I suppose one final piece of backlog is needed before I continue, this piece of fiction is based on the events of just before Crisis Core, and they lead right up to the very beginning of Final Fantasy VII. As in the opening credits of the Playstation/PC game.)**

**(A/N/N: Bonus points for anyone who can correctly guess from whom the quotes used in the Prologue may have come from. ^^ **

**Some are no-brainers, but I think at least one may trick a few people out there, who knows really? And one last apology for this huge ass 'Authors Note', the rest wont be so pointlessly long. **

**So do as you please. RnR, flame me for being a n00b, praise me, I'm not fussy. And as a request, if anyone has any wild ideas or schemes they wanna seen thrown into a piece of fiction based on the time period I have described, please let me know and I'll see what I can do for you.**

**But above all else, please enjoy my work, however little of it there currently is. Peace.)**


	2. Shock and Awe Moments

**The ****First**** Ho****p****e**** – ****Cha****p****ter**** 1 - Shock and Awe Moments  
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****Midgar; a colossal metallic city in the Middle Eastern part of the world. Built as a ring, the city symbolises perfection, or so they say. Midgar is separated into 8 sectors, all recently numbered because no one could be bothered using their given names anymore. As well as these 8 sectors, Midgar is divided clean through the middle, creating 2 separate halves; an upper half and a lower half. Now, you only ever saw a modicum of 'the good life' if you lived on top of the plates, the upper half of the city. All those who lived on the ground, their lives were difficult to say the least. These lower sectors were nicknamed 'The Slums' by their inhabitants and were more or less completely forgotten about by Midgar's ruling power, the government if you will. So you see, even though Midgar itself is supposed to represent perfection, any halfwit with a sense of morality could understand that Midgar was far from perfect, it was a complete load of bull.**

**As for this government, its name is Shinra, it's supposed to; ironically have something to do with the word, "God." The Shinra Company in their efforts to expand their business acumen, apparently discovered a substance with literally, magical properties. They called this substance, 'Mako'. A project was launched soon after to construct 8 reactors along the perimeter of Midgar. These reactors would harness the power of Mako and turn it into energy, providing Midgar with its electricity, petrol, gas, you name it. The project was a success and on review, figures suggest that 8 reactors weren't needed. The revised number of reactors turned out to be 5, yet the 3 'excess' reactors were never decommissioned.**

**This breakthrough in utilizing energy was something the entire world became interested in, thus Shinra's expansion began on a colossal level. Almost every city on the Planet had a Mako reactor built, thus everyone's trust in Shinra grew massively because they were doing such a great thing for the planet.**

**However Shinra didn't only excel in economic market and business enterprise. There was another aspect to the company; it had its own private army, used mainly as a peace keeping authority. It consists largely of troops, trained to use rifles, machine guns, grenades, snipers etc. These troops are spilt into divisions and are under the command of one of the superior members of the army. The superior members have their own separate division. Collectively they are known as SOLDIER and there are rumors that the combined power of SOLIDER is at least 3 times that of Shinra's entire army. So basically, the members of SOLDIER are the cream of the crop. Not only that, but within SOLDIER there are ranks, ascending through these ranks earns prestige, respect, and a bigger pay cheque of course. The lower end of the ranks tend to stick with the guns, rifles and whatnot, while the upper end; 2nd class, 1st class, officer, etc, they almost definitely swap in for swords, and all manner of bladed weaponry. It is the officers in SOLDIER that command the divisions of the army previously stated.**

**Shinra's headquarters is a towering structure in the heart of Midgar, around 70 stories tall. Anything and everything that has to do with Shinra, its affiliations, and its interests, come through this building. Like most absurdly tall structures, there is no direct route from the bottom, to the top floor. On top of that, access to the top 15 or so floors is restricted unless you have the proper credentials, strictly for security purposes.**

**It is on the 68th floor of the complex where this story begins.**

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**A young man was climbing the main staircase in the upper tier of the Shinra building in a slow, casual gait. He wore a navy blue polo necked vest, and matching cargo pants with pockets on the thighs, tucked into black combat boots. There is a steel plated guard around his waist and a couple of braces reaching up and around his shoulders, latching onto the back of the same steel plate. His shoulders were also protected by steel plated guards; his arms were bare all the way down to his hands which bore black leather gloves. This clothing was the uniform of a SOLIDER 1st class, the young man in particular happened to be the youngest and newest in the 1st class ranking. He was only 17 years of age, and being in service to the Shinra army for 4 years he showed immense capability and strength. His left hand was latched onto a fully sheathed katana known as Shuurajou. He held the scabbard towards the top near the hilt where a long and flowing tie chord was wrapped around, green to match his eyes. The blade length itself was around 5ft in length. As the SOLDIER reached the top of the staircase leading to floor 68 he had a look of faint displeasure radiating off his features. His eyes were a calm and welcoming emerald green, very distinctive compared to the rest of SOLDIER, as their eyes were anything but calm. Hair colour was a plain and ordinary brown, the style however, was rather promiscuous for a member of SOLDIER. Long and loose at the back, reaching down to his shoulder blades, followed up by the sides curling their way past his ears somewhat, and a few bits hung over his forehead creating a fringe, some were short, others hug down the full length of his hair, these pieces we usually shook to the side or tucked away behind his ears. That said, if you caught his shadow or a silhouette, you would more often than not mistake it for a mullet. When off duty his hair tended to hang completely loose, if not tied into a ponytail using the blue bobble he wore on his left wrist covered up by the glove.

Being at this age of the late teens, the young man was expected to be at the peak of physical fitness, this was true. He stood tall at 5' 11" and was built like a brick shithouse, while keeping a readily athletic frame; his muscles were definable through the uniform though nothing bulged as if blood circulation was being cut off.

The SOLIDER came across a large electronic door, next to it was a keypad. He carefully selected a 5 digit code then swiped a card through the reader situated at the side of the keypad. The big red light above the door switched to blue as a woman's voice spoke through the keypad.

"Security protocol passed. Access granted."

The door slid into the side of the wall and the young man stepped through into the laboratory floor. With a short flick to the side, fixing his hair, he began looking around, searching for someone.

"Professor Hojo?" He called out, still trying to spot a distinctive white coat. His eyes soon caught onto a man sat down at a desk, hunched over all manner of paperwork, waving his hand in the air in a beckoning fashion, this was the Professor.

The member of SOLDIER continued his gait towards this desk situated in front of a large glass observation tank, currently empty.

"You wanted to see me again Sir?" The teen spoke up. Hojo began nodding before turning to face him in his swivel chair.

"Ah, Kagateo. I didn't expect to see you so soon." The Professor was smiling.

"Yeah well, the sooner I have done with this, the better. No offence but I just don't like this stuff." Kagateo admitted, folding his arms, still holding onto his sword. Hojo nodded more.

"That's quite alright, but you must understand, you're quite an interesting specimen." Kagateo glared, clearly taking offence. Hojo soon corrected himself, "I'm sorry, it's a force of habit. But my point still stands." Hojo stood up, trundled over to a filing cabinet, swiftly opened, searched, and removed a file from it, and pushing it shut he called over. "You know the drill Kagateo."

Sighing the teen walked over to where the Professor was heading, sort of like a medical bay amidst this giant laboratory. After tying Shuurajou to his waist guard, he removed the shoulder plates and unbuckled the braces, removing the polo vest, and throwing them onto a gurney. He sat next to these items, flicking his hair to the side again. Hojo retrieved a stethoscope and began using it, among other precautionary tests. Writing some figures down, he spoke again.

"So, do we have any progress at all this time round?" Hojo put down his pen and assumed a seating position in another swivel chair, ready to listen intently.

"Well..." Kagateo said, taking a moment to decide how he should word an answer. "It's happened quite a few times, very briefly though. Nothing that could be counted towards as progress." Hojo shook his head.

"Nonsense. Last time we talked, it was only a couple of times. Now, could there be any possible correlation forming in these times? Meaning, were you doing anything particular while the changes occurred?" He reached for the clipboard paper and a pen again ready to jot things down.

"No, sometimes when I eat. When I'm in the shower, anything really. It's just random." Kagateo gave a nonchalant smile as Hojo put a hand to his chin and made a throat noise.

"So something like battle, doesn't always trigger it?" Kagateo shook his head. The Professor nodded a bit then stood. "Well, it seems we are getting there. I have theories but seeing as you're the one living with this, I shall ask your opinion. Why do you think the Mako energy is taking so long to be accepted and to take effect? Especially considering that all other 1st class SOLDIER before you only required one or two doses."

This was the truth behind Kagateo's calm eyes. To explain this properly, when a member of SOLDIER reaches 1st class they are given one maybe two doses of Mako energy at maximum strength and potency. Two doses however are usually pushing it. The enhancements the Mako energy provides is monumental. The senses heighten, strength is increased, agility is unreal, even intelligence is boosted. And you are always able to tell who has received these enhancements, the look in their eyes. It's known as the mark of SOLDIER. The pupils of the eyes appear to be unnaturally focused at all times, sharp, cold and emotionless; piercing stares. This is also combined with a faint glow, noticeable in the darkness. Kagateo was the only SOLDIER 1st class who did not have the mark of SOLDIER, even though he had received a ridiculous amount of Mako injections. 14 to be precise, some say it is a miracle he is not in a permanent coma.

"Well, I think that, maybe it's because I have a high immune system. I mean, all my life I've hardly ever had colds or the flu, never had chicken pox or anything. So maybe it's my body fighting the Mako and refusing to accept it as something that's gonna help me." Kagateo made wavy hand gestures as he spoke, something he did all the time when trying to explain something. Professor Hojo smiled.

"Excellent, we're on the same page. That's precisely my understanding too. And I trust that you're now also thinking that because these briefly moments where you receive the mark are becoming more frequent, that your body his starting to 'give up' as it were, accepting the Mako as a friend, not the enemy?" Kagateo nodded.

Hojo stood up, carrying the paperwork concerning Kagateo with him; he continues his evaluation before fixing his glasses. "Well, I don't see much point in another injection, 15 is -definitely- pushing it." Chuckling at the emphasis he put on the word. "I suppose waiting is what we do now; however, I would like to make some observations about your genetic makeup in the meantime. By taking a blood sample I will be able to uncover parts to how your immune system works." Hojo picked up an empty syringe, Kagateo's eyes widened slightly, and the Professor noticed this.

"Not a fan of these things, eh?" He chuckled some, "Nothing to worry about, I doubt you'll feel anything. You see, until the mark shows up permanently I'll need to see what exactly is going on. I guess you could say that I'm tired of waiting." He laughed a little bit and Kagateo gave a weak smile before snapping his neck to the side, grunting somewhat and held a hand to his forehead. The Professor arched an eye brow.

"It's doing it again." Hojo's eyes widened this time and he dropped the syringe to dart back over to Kagateo.

"Really!? Open your eyes boy, let me see!" Hojo removed his glasses and held Kagateo by the shoulders as he raised his head.

The Professor frowned upon noticing that Kagateo's eyes were their usual calm green orbs. Suddenly his eyes sharpened to immense standards, Hojo was taken back by this, it shocked him slightly, this process repeated 3 times. Before Kagateo started wincing.

"It's different. There's pain this time." He then yelled in pain, shaking Hojo off, holding his head a little.

Hojo began thinking, holding a hand to his chin, _"Excellent. Maybe this time, it's for keeps..." _He continued observing as Kagateo dropped to his knees yelling a little bit more. His eyes kept jumping in and out of focus at random intervals, accompanied with surges of sharp headache pain. Moments later this stopped. Kagateo's breathing was moderately heavy; he made his way to his feet, keeping his head lowered to the floor. Professor Hojo jumped over to Kagateo, grabbing the clipboard and pen again.

"How do you feel Kagateo?" He quirked, preparing himself to write furious amounts of detail.

"Different." He deadpanned, "A lot different..." Kagateo raised his head to face Hojo, the scientist in question could feel his hair standing on end; the stare he received was truly cold, he looked heartless. Hojo after a few moments, begin smiling proudly.

"Then we have results at long last. I wonder though if I should question this coincidence." He didn't, "So I guess there's no need for that sample then. I have nothing to examine when everything I wanted to see is right here, staring me in the face." Giving a satisfying nod he turned tail, collecting some paperwork and refilling them where they should be. "I suppose I should congratulate you, but this may be premature. You see, you might want to put that uniform back on, we need to run some tests."

The Professor explained to Kagateo that now he had officially received the illustrious, 'Mark of SOLDIER'. He would have to go through some standardised tests to score up his abilities and how significant their improvements are. Kagateo was escorted to a training simulator donning his full uniform and sword in hand. The room was just a big metal container, Kagateo smirked at this.

"This is some budget you people have..." The sarcasm poured off of him, as he began examining the room, slowly circling on the spot. As he heard Hojo's voice boom over a tannoy, Kagateo spun to observe a giant pane of glass with the walking lab coat speaking through an earpiece attachment.

"Alright, let's begin." He began typing into a large control panel, and pushed a circular green button.

Suddenly things started to warp, inside the room, the glass pane disappeared and the metal walls morphed into an expanse of green. Kagateo looked around in amazement; his cold emerald green eyes were wide. He stood on a dirt road that led off miles into the distance. It was a warm summer's day in the countryside, there were sparrows chasing each other in the sky; their graceful art form made Kagateo smile. Then out of no where a truck raced past the SOLDIER, nearly running him down. It was travelling at a decent speed too, perhaps the driver trying to get away from something.

Hojo's voice appeared out of no where again. "Impressive isn't it? I'll explain all of this to you later if you wish. Right now, you have a job to do now. There are some very important documents aboard that truck. Your mission is to retrieve them, now go!"

During this Kagateo had folded arms and nodded his head with each point until Hojo commanded him to start, this startled him somewhat.

"Wait, hang on. What!?" Looking rather perplexed he figured he was supposed to catch it on foot, and then took off after the truck at an equally startling pace.

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Back in Hojo's lab on floor 68, Kagateo stood with folded arms and closed eyes, his head lowered to the floor. Hojo was busy at a computer, entering the data gathered from the trials Kagateo just went through. It was a stilling silence minus the sounds of the obsessively fast pace that Hojo was typing. The clicks and pings of the keyboard echoed around the room slightly.

"I imagine you're barely out of breath, right?" Hojo spoke up smiling to himself, Kagateo made a throat noise, still retaining his posture. The black haired, ponytail donning master scientist, chuckled a little at this, "Excellent." He said punching one more final key before spinning round. "Take a look; I think you shall be quite proud." Kagateo opened his eyes and arched an eyebrow, walking forward to the large screen.

It was a table with a list of names down the left hand side, and several strings of numbers lined up horizontally for each name.

"What's this?" Kagateo quirked having a few guesses but rather wouldn't say for possible embarrassment.

"This," Hojo began with a sense of pride, "Is a statistical chart, listing all of Shinra's 1st class SOLIDER's. You see, the entire SOLDIER 1st class are tested in the exact same way. The same trials you just went through. And the results are frequently updated and they are all of these numbers you see beside the names. It ranks collectively. Generic strength, speed, intelligence, plus blade skills, magic power just to name a few, are gathered and ranked. Now would you like to take a look at the names in particular? Tell me if you find something interesting."

Folding his arms again Kagateo scanned the list, looking for his name, guessing that was what Hojo was referring to. He didn't spot it so he simply shrugged his shoulders. Grinning, Professor Hojo highlighted a row.

"Take a look now, and tell me what you see." Kagateo looked up and his eyes grew wide. It was his data that Hojo highlighted; he was 2nd from the top. "Congratulations kid, you're officially the 2nd strongest SOLDIER we've got." He swivelled round once more to take a look at the teens reaction.

Kagateo stood, his cold, piercing, emerald orbs staring at the screen, mouth slightly agape.

"Whoa..." Was the only thing he could muster at the time.

Hojo began snickering again. "Surprised I take it? It's only natural considering your age and inexperience against the rest of the top ranked names. Impressive is too casual a word for this achievement."

Kagateo lifted his gaze up just a little more and made a throat noise at the top ranked SOLDIER, it was completely obvious even before he knew this graph existed, yet somehow he felt a little bit of surprise upon observing the name above his own. He was barely taking notice of Hojo as he spoke, too busy comparing the numbers. Until of course, Hojo came out with this.

"I know someone who is going to take great interest in these results..."

Kagateo stared at the Professor, who began nodding.

"Yep, the very man you failed to beat in these tests..."

Kagateo head sank, right hand cradling his forehead.

"Sephiroth."

There was another momentary stilling silence.

"Great..." The sarcasm in Kagateo's voice had returned.

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**(A/N: And we're done. Now honestly, if it wasn't obvious enough in the Prologue, I expected this update to be some time off yet. But I shall explain; the inspiration for this chapter came from when I was in the gym last night. Maybe you can spot which bit was directly influenced by me going to a gym last night. ^^**

**So this chapter provides a nice solid introduction to this piece of fiction, or at least, I think it does. XD Anyway, do as you may; pillage and rape, perform some interpretive dance, instigate some racial cleansing, I'm not fussy, although honestly I do prefer RnR's. *thumbs up***

**I hope you are enjoying this read so far.)**

**(A/N/N: I do not, I repeat, -NOT- support the raping and pillaging of villages, towns, etc. And I do not, again I repeat -NOT- for racial cleansing... Interpretive dance however... XD**

**And finally, apoligies for the random underlineing of the heading. For some reason this site prefers the heading to look like that instead of a nice neat underline like the heading of the last chapter. Peace.)  
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	3. Awesome

**The**** First**** Ho****p****e**** – ****Cha****p****ter 2**** –**** Awesome.**

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All things considered, today was turning out to be rather interesting for Kagateo.

He woke up mid morning to be informed via email that the good Professor Hojo has requested his presence up in the lab on floor 68, in which they had discussed the abnormality of Kagateo's eyes, with coincidental results. Only then to be put through a series of tests, to then be told that because of the results gained from said tests, he was now one of the dominating figures in SOLDIER.

Shortly after, a private meeting was arranged with Kagateo's official boss, the top ranking member of SOLIDER, Sephiroth. He could only imagine what this was going to be about, but what was the big deal anyway?

In the meantime however, Kagateo was free to do as he wished, so he wound up on 61st floor cafeteria sat at a table, taking frugal sips from a large mug of hot chocolate. He was sitting back into his chair rather than being hunched over the table like a praying mantis, and had his right leg resting on top of his left at a 90 degree angle. Giving his hair a flick to the side you could tell this guy was extremely casual and had a calm nature. Not many people who worked in this place could pull that off. Shuurajou, the sword that he carried with him, was leant against the table, its green tying cord nearly reaching the floor; his gloves were resting on the table top surface.

Acknowledging at this time that he was alone, Kagateo began to think while continuing to sip at the piping hot drink.

"_I really should start trying to make some friends in this place." He mused, _observing the different gatherings of workers during their breaks, _"I look like the homicidal, loner guy who comes into the office one day with a shotgun and blows everyone half to shit." _He cracked a smile at his own humour, closing his eyes to take another sip.

A few minutes passed on the cafeteria floor silently in Kagateo's mind, he was attempting to drown out the mindless rabble of the office workers with a form of meditation where he simply emptied his mind of all thoughts and feelings, so he could feel closer to himself. A young woman was approaching Kagateo in a white long sleeved shirt, a satin black knee length skirt, and flat heel boots. Looking the same age as himself, and rather attractive. she smiled upon seeing that Kagateo had his eyes closed, her hair was the same colour but a little bit longer. Carrying a lunch tray with her, she got within earshot.

"Excuse me, is this seat taken?" The tone she spoke in was wonderfully dulcet as she stood there patiently waiting for an answer, still with a smile. The SOLDIER 1st class opened his eyes and looked up, they widened slightly upon casting his gaze at her. Kagateo didn't want to make things wholly uncomfortable for her, but he did notice as he raised his head that there were plenty of other unoccupied tables. Smiling back, he pushed a chair outward for her using his left leg.

"No, it's just me." He shifted his weight and leg positions to sit more upright, before taking another sip of his hot chocolate. The girl nodded slightly as she moved into the seat.

"Thank you," She said, offering a hand to him, "My name's Izzy." Not trying to look bemused at the boyish name, the young SOLIDER shook her hand.

"Kagateo, a pleasure..." They both smiled to each other briefly before the information could register in the girls mind, her eyes grew wide.

"Wait, you said Kagateo." He nodded, "Are you SOLIDER 1st class?" He nodded again, running a hand past his left ear, fixing his hair. "You're the guy who just claimed the 2nd spot in the power board for the entire of SOLDIER!?"

This question in particular perked Kagateo's curiosity. He looked at her vexed, but in a charming manner.

"Now, how the hell do you know that?" He was amazed. It had barely been a half hour, she giggled before replying.

"Are you kidding? Gossip floats around this place like oxygen." She waved her hands into the air to demonstrate her point. Smiling at him again before returning her focus back onto lunch, she picked up a slice of pizza, which lay next to a muffin, and a can of fizzy lemonade."Congratulations." She added after swallowing the mouthful of pizza, popping the top of the can open.

---

The next ten minutes passed by, consisting of conversation about how Izzy admired the members of SOLDIER, how cool they looked in uniform, and how strong and talented they had to be. Kagateo, when he felt an opportunity arise, added general comments and sometimes anecdotes about his own experiences in SOLDIER, trying to create a contrast between their discussions. The two seemed to get along well.

"So what do you do here?" Kagateo asked, thinking it was about time they switched the topic of conversation onto her.

"Me? I work in the media, floor 22. I help film and put together advertisements and commercials, Shinra promotional videos and stuff." The smile on her face seemed brighter somehow; he guessed this was like her dream job, something she loved to do. Then something dawned on him.

"You come all the way up here from the 22nd floor for you dinner hour!?" He arched his eyebrow, she simply giggled some more.

"I like the pizza they do up here." He chuckled in return.

"Right..." He stretched the "i's", in an incredibly sarcastic manner. Izzy felt like nudging him.

"Hey!" She raised her voice slightly in mock fury, "I do..." Following it up rather sheepishly they both laughed until they were interrupted by a beeping noise, Izzy's pager was sounding. She unclipped it from the waist of her skirt,"Damn, I have to go now, I'm needed back downstairs," She stood up, her tray in hand again, "Well, it was nice meeting you Kagateo; I hope we can talk again soon." He swung his hair to the side again before nodding.

"Yeah, you too." She smiled at him once more before she took off.

The young SOLDIER watched the girl on her way, his chin resting into his right hand as he finished off his hot chocolate using the left. He found it quite strange that she said she needed to be back downstairs, yet he was sat perpendicular to the higher tiers main elevators and she was skipping off in her own manner, in almost the complete opposite direction of both the elevators and the staircases. His eyebrow began to arch as she sat down again at a table with two other women who looked the same age as her at the far end of the cafeteria. He made a throat noise as one of the women handed Izzy something. Kagateo's sharp eyesight examined this scene; Izzy was placing that something into her purse.

"A bet..." The SOLDIER 1st class was bemused, "Those others bet she wouldn't come over and talk to me? Women..." He rounded off before rising to his feet, looking at the giant digital clock readout situated above the tills. "I guess I better get going. I don't want to be late for this meeting..."

And without another word he put on his gloves and collected his sword, held it as he usually did, at the top, near the hilt and made his way to the elevators, but remembering what Izzy said about gossip, he spun around to face the staircases and proceeded as usual. They were much more private than cramped elevators shafts with who knows how many random strangers.

"_What this meeting is about however. I have no idea."_

_---  
_

Now currently on the 50th floor, Kagateo wasn't entirely sure where he needed to be next. Having only having been on this floor twice since he started in the Shinra Army and it appeared to have been recently refurbished, he couldn't quite recall or even guess where Sephiroth's office may be. Fortunately however he was soon approached by a man with neat blond hair in a three piece suit.

"Good afternoon," The man said holding out his right hand, Kagateo shook it in greeting. "My name is Lazard. Tell me, are you Kagateo?" The teen nodded, and was about to speak when Lazard cut him off. "Excellent. Please, this way."

The man motioned for Kagateo to enter a room just on his right, he did so and there were no surprises as to who he found inside. Sephiroth; SOLDIER's top ranking and commanding officer, in his own uniform leaning against a wall with his arms folded and head lowered slightly.

"Sir." Kagateo saluted. Sephiroth pushed himself away from the wall and smiled, giving a salute back to Kagateo but in a slightly more casual manner.

"Welcome." He said, his icy cool mannerism preceding him. Lazard entered the room now as well, Sephiroth noticed this, eyeing him up, and moving towards his desk he spoke again. "Kagateo, I'd like to introduce you to Lazard. He's the newly appointed director for SOLDIER."

"Yep, and even though I have taken some of your power and responsibility Sephiroth, and despite the fact that I am now essentially your boss. Rest assured you're still the number one guy around here." Lazard cracked a grin and gave a thumbs up as Sephiroth mad a throat noise.

"Whatever, now get out of here, I need to speak to Kagateo alone." Still grinning, Lazard took his leave, Kagateo and Sephiroth remained. As the door closed shut, the teen gave Sephiroth a look as if to say, 'what the hell?'

The officer caught onto this and began explaining, "The recent escalations of the Wutai conflicts were beginning to become a large burden upon myself, of course all of us, but myself especially. I'm more useful in a battlefield than I am in an office and the amount of paperwork and meetings I have to go to is unreal. So I asked for a new position to be made within SOLDIER, and that's where Lazard comes in. He handles all of the ways and means over here, giving me the space to finally get over into Wutai and start helping out my men." Sephiroth sat down at his desk, gesturing for Kagateo to take the seat in front of him. Nodding, the young SOLDIER did so.

"However one of the duties Lazard took over from me is the power to dictate who goes where, for how long, and why. So essentially, even though I answer to the president directly, Lazard is my boss, as well as yours." Sephiroth had his eyes closed while reciting the last sentence as if quelling a discontent within himself. Kagateo fixed his hair using his right hand and he nodded along to Sephiroth's points.

"Now, we're not here to listen to me go on about my managerial problems." Sephiroth snatched a sheet of paper from seemingly out of no where and began examining it. "We're here to talk about these." He handed Kagateo the piece of paper, looking at it himself he realised it was a smaller version of the table in Hojo's lab.

"It's very impressive to have this kind of ability at such a young age." He continued.

"Thank you, sir." Kagateo placed the paper back on the desk.

"No need to thank me, these are your abilities. Anyway Kagateo, my point is these stats show that you are an incredibly powerful kid. Now, it doesn't really matter if you train until you pass out twenty four hours a day, or if you're just naturally talented. These figures speak for themselves and will get you noticed amongst the ranks." Sephiroth was looking into Kagateo's eyes with his piercing green orbs. Naturally, the young SOLDIER was returning the same thousand yard stare.

"Now, I have just passed over duties to Lazard, literally within the last ten minutes, but I decided on one final thing before I did." Sephiroth went into a draw and pulled out a single sheet of A4 paper, "This is your release form. Kagateo, I think it's about time we got you into Wutai." The teen collected the sheet and looked at it briefly. It was typed out like official documents should, nicely arranged, 4 paragraphs covering almost the entire page, an official Shinra seal placed near the top and an additional SOLDIER one next to it. Upon some further examination Kagateo read through and realised it was most stating terms and conditions, and about how once in the field, the company was not responsible for injury, among other things.

"Looking it over I see." Sephiroth stood up and made his way around to Kagateo's side of the desk as he continued. "Of course, you will only be sent, if you sign, and if your superior officer witness' the signing, that's me." Kagateo placed the release form back onto the desk and spoke.

"Sir, this thing says I depart for Wutai in December. That's still a few weeks away." Kagateo, although he was feeling honoured he was being asked to fight in the Wutai war at last, was a little confused. If he was being asked as Sephiroth's last request with overbearing power in the SOLDIER hierarchy, to go to Wutai, why was it that his ship wouldn't sail for another month? Nodding along to Kagateo's remark, the officer smiled.

"That's because, even though the chances are these figures are accurate, because let's face it, we're dealing with Hojo; I have yet to witness anything that you've done that would justify these numbers." Sephiroth was sitting into his desk while making this apparent speech, looking rather pleased facing the wall where the door was. Kagateo, who sensed he knew where this was going, simply nodded, allowing the man to continue.

"I want to asses your abilities personally. I guess you could say that I'd like to train you." Kagateo began smiling also, looking up at the man. "I don't doubt your abilities. I just want to confirm them myself. You see, there is another reason behind this..."

Sephiroth then began talking about himself before he became an officer, and spoke of a few more current SOLDIER officers and what they were like before they ascended like him. He also made special mention of two additional officers; one was called Genesis and the other, Angeal. Sephiroth said they were his close friends and made jokes about the things they used to get up to, even before they were a part of SOLDIER.

"And then we have you, the enigma. Essentially, you're better than my friends and my colleagues, but you shouldn't be. You are the only member of SOLDIER in the top ten who isn't an officer. We're going to try and fix that." Sephiroth was smiling proudly again, looking at Kagateo, waiting for his reaction.

"Sir, it can't be wise to keep on suggesting that these test results mean that I'm... Wait, what!?" Kagateo stood up, did he just correctly pick up on what he thought Sephiroth was implying? The grin on the mans face was the proof.

"If it all goes well in Wutai, you'll be an officer by the end of the year."

This was in essence, a hammer blow straight to Kagateo's chest. He could feel his heart skipping beats, what else was going to happen today?

"But, we can't do anything unless you sign. And on review I've just realised how much it sounded like I'm trying to persuade you to go. But in all honesty Kagateo, really, the choice is yours. Think it over; I'll give you my pager number for when you're ready to talk." Sephiroth went back behind his desk and took out some sticky notes and a pen. Kagateo shook his hair to the side.

"But sir, I signed already, while you were talking about your friends." Sephiroth looked up, surprised somewhat.

"Oh..." He stated, "Well then, congratulations." Sephiroth held out his hand to Kagateo, who promptly shook it smiling.

---

Kagateo had walked his way down to the ground floor of the Shinra building. He watched as a group of mechanics were replacing a version of one of Shinra's own manufactured cars with a newer, supercharged model. The car was to act as a show piece, demonstrating Shinra's engineering prowess, set on top of a plinth. The teen approached the reception, to sign his name out and did so, bidding the receptionists a good afternoon before leaving through the main entrances.

He stood there in silence for a few moments, taking stock of what just happened, his eyes were closed, and just a few seconds passed before he cracked a grin.

"Awesome." He stated before beginning his journey down yet more stairs away from Shinra HQ.

---

November nights were always brittle. Thankfully it wasn't raining on this particular night as Kagateo made his way across the streets of Sectors 2's upper plate, a shopping bag in each hand. He wore black, low waist and slightly crotch hugging jeans with black, chunky shoes, a striped black and tan long sleeve, and a farmer green coat, fully zipped up. A heavy breath revealed how cold it was, the carbon dioxide that left him was clearly visible, even with only the faint glow of street lamps to aid him.

Kagateo was making his way to the SOLDIER dorms, often referred to as the barracks, here in sector 2. SOLDIER members that weren't dispatched elsewhere in the world would always find a home here; most members of SOLDIER had to share rooms however. Only your promotion to a 1st can guarantee a private dorm. Kagateo was glad he no longer had to be a part of the four poster hell that was a shared dorm with a bunch of gun slinging upstarts.

Approaching the dorms, Kagateo thought back onto what Sephiroth had said just before he was dismissed.

"_Meet me on the 49__th__ floor tomorrow morning. Ten o'clock, outside the training rooms. And get plenty of rest tonight, trust me kid. You're gonna need it." _

Kagateo was packing away his shopping as he smirked.

"Bring it on tough guy."

---

20 minutes later, Kagateo was dressed in only his boxer shorts and a white cotton vest and socks. He was sat in a comfy leather armchair with all the lights out in his dorm room, all apart from the television which he was watching intently. Loveless Act II, the feature length film. In his hand was a glass of chilled water which he sipped at every now and then. The young SOLDIER's lack of clothing revealed that he was wearing something else too, a long beaded necklace of the purest jade. Each bead was held in place by a knot in the cord that they were strung to on either side.

As the film progressed, Kagateo felt he was getting more and more into it, which amused him a little.

"I can't believe I'm starting to like this crap..." He stated with a smile as he took another sip of his water.

But perhaps another that he couldn't, or wouldn't believe, if he knew about was that as he watched the film, minding his own business, enjoying the night; the faint glow that should be present in his eyes at this time, wasn't there.

He had lost the mark of SOLDIER.

---

**(A/N: Cliffhangers, gotta love 'em, right? Eh, whatever. So this is the last time where I can see myself updating so quickly. College half term is over now and I'm back to studies and whatnot starting tomorrow. As a side note I'd like to mention that as it is my ex-girlfriend's 18th tomorrow, in honor of her (as strange as that sounds), and as a present, I decided to involve her persona in this chapter, if you haven't guessed, it's "Izzy." And I know the chances of you reading this are literally one in several billion, but I'll say it anyway.**

**Happy 18th Birthday Isobel.**

**Right, I'm finished talking (am I?) now. I hope you are all still enjoying this. There will be action soon, I promise. ^^;**

**Peace.)**


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